ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Michael A. Wells told police he was acting in self-defense on Dec. 1 when he stabbed a man during a scuffle at a Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge in Northwest Roanoke.
But at a preliminary hearing Wednesday, a General District judge found probable cause to support a first-degree murder charge against Wells.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner said prosecutors will ask a grand jury that meets next month to indict Wells on charges of killing 49-year-old Anthony Roger Crutchfield of Roanoke.
Carole Thomasson, Well's ex-fiancee and the mother of his two children, testified he was suspicious about an affair she was having with Crutchfield.
"He said that if he ever caught [Crutchfield] and myself together, he would kill either him or me, whichever one came first," Thomasson testified.
But according to a statement Wells gave police, it was Crutchfield who started swinging when Wells showed up at the Loudon Avenue VFW lodge early on the morning of Dec. 1 and found him in the bar area.
"He started the whole thing, and everybody saw it when he punched me in the face," Wells told Detective C.B Tinsley in a statement introduced as evidence Wednesday.
As the two men struggled, Wells said, "I was down on all fours, and I just reached in my pocket and got my knife and punched him. I didn't know where I cut him, just to get him off of me."
The knife slashed Crutchfield's thigh, cutting his femoral artery. He died several hours later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Wells, 36, was arrested a short time later at the Police Department, where he had gone immediately after the fight to seek charges against Crutchfield for assaulting him. Wells was allowed to remain free Wednesday on a $50,000 bond.
Defense attorney Richard Lawrence said during the hearing that "it would be fair and reasonable to conclude that we have a self-defense issue in this case."
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines KEYWORDS: ROMURby CNB